


the muffin man

by mickeysupset



Series: sugar and spice [2]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Bakery AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:04:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4492896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickeysupset/pseuds/mickeysupset
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey is already halfway out the backdoor to go greet Ian when her request stops him. “I don’t work here, Debbie.”</p><p>“You might as well considering how often you hang out around here.” Debbie reaches over to the table behind her and grabs an apron. She tosses it to Mickey. “Put this on and smile big.”</p><p>(or the one where Mickey doesn't work at the bakery, no matter how much everyone might want him to.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the muffin man

**Author's Note:**

> this is a sequel to [the gingerbread house](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3851314)

“Your legs are like an Oreo cookie. I want to-”

“You’re not supposed to be back here,” Debbie lectures, not looking up from the cupcake she is icing.

“You’re not Ian,” Mickey states, only having come into the kitchen because Ian wasn’t out front to greet him as usual. He looks around the small kitchen and still doesn’t see his boyfriend. He could have sworn Ian said he would be working today. 

“And I wasn’t Ian the last time you tried to use that stupid pick up line either. How many cookie related pick up lines do you have saved up for him?” 

Mickey ignores Debbie’s teasing. “Where’s Ian? 

“You do realize that more than one Gallagher works here, right? Sometimes three of us whenever Carl remembers to show up,” Debbie says, still not answering his question.

Mickey walks over to her to see what she is working on. It’s not as interesting as Ian would be, so he quickly loses interest. “Shouldn’t someone be out front greeting customers? What if someone stole all the goods?”

“Well, they could always walk back here like some customers,” Debbie says, pinning Mickey with a pointed look. “Besides, we have security cameras.” She gestures towards the security camera footage playing to her left, only to notice there are customers waiting to be served. The ring from the service bell comes soon after. “Crap, my hands are dirty and Ian is out back with the delivery truck. Can you go out there and help them?”

Mickey is already halfway out the backdoor to go greet Ian when her request stops him. “I don’t work here, Debbie.”

“You might as well considering how often you hang out around here.” Debbie reaches over to the table behind her and grabs an apron. She tosses it to Mickey. “Put this on and smile big.”

She doesn’t really give Mickey an option as she shoos him from the kitchen and into the front. Mickey is anything but a people person, but he knows when to suck it up and try. Having a kid has taught him that.

Mickey nervously wipes his hands down the front of his apron before clearing his throat. “Hey, uh... What do you want?” He winces at his pathetic attempt at customer service.

The old lady looks up from the display case and studies Mickey. “Are you new here?”

“No, not really,” Mickey answers because technically it’s true. He notices the woman take note of his tattoos, and he makes sure to shove his hands into his pockets before she can get a good look. He doesn’t need to scare off Ian’s customers. 

Which would be easier said than done if the customers weren’t so annoying.

“Oh really? My granddaughter and I come here all the time and we’ve never seen you,” The old lady adds on, still watching Mickey warily. Mickey is almost certain she’s running through crime dramas in her head. She probably thinks Mickey has murdered Ian and Debbie and is waiting to rob the store. He’s about to go get Debbie and prove the lady wrong when the little girl with her speaks up.

“What’s your name?”

“Mickey,” He answers at length, trying to smile but he’s sure it’s more of a grimace. The only kid he really knows how to smile at and like is his own. 

“Like Mickey Mouse?” The girl questions, unfortunately latching her attention onto Mickey instead of the food in front of her. Now, Mickey is full on grimacing. 

His smile turns brittle. “No, not like the fuc-” Mickey starts to answer. He could only be compared to a mouse so many times in his life before he snapped. Fortunately, he is cut off before he can undoubtedly make a young girl cry and an old lady yell.

“Like the Muffin Man!” Ian exclaims, hastily making his way out of the kitchen. He jabs Mickey in the side, sends him a look, but fixes his face and smiles at his customers, who both look much more relaxed in the presence of Ian. 

Mickey feels the same way.

“The Muffin Man?” The girl asks. Ian nods his head as he takes their order from her grandmother. 

“Who lives on Drury Lane,” Ian confirms. The little girl seems content with the answer and even more so with the cookies Ian hands her. Mickey should have thought to do that.

“Cool!” She exclaims, but Mickey doesn’t know if she’s talking about the cookies or Mickey. Probably the cookies. 

Ian wraps up the rest of their order, checks them out, and sends them on their way quickly. He makes it all look so easy, and Mickey is somewhat in awe. The awe is gone the moment the old lady waves to Ian but scowls at Mickey as she leaves the bakery. 

“The Muffin Man? Really?” Mickey questions, fighting down the urge to flip the old lady off and instead concentrating on Ian. It has been a few days since they’d seen each other, and Mickey is more than glad to fix that.

“You were about to cuss out a seven year old; I had to think quickly.” Ian flicks at the un-tied apron strings hanging at Mickey’s sides. He uses them to pull Mickey closer to him. “You look sexy as fuck in this apron.”

Mickey, letting himself be dragged towards Ian, snorts. “I look like a dork.”

Ian looks at Mickey, scandalized. “Are you saying I look like a dork?” He pulls away from Mickey in order to model his own apron. Mickey grins easily at him, stopping Ian after a few dramatic poses and pulls Ian back to him.

“Always,” Mickey mutters as he leans forward to brush his lips against Ian’s. Ian readily reciprocates the kiss.

When Debbie comes out of the back a minute later, the moment is shattered. “Please try and keep it PG out here. We don’t need people throwing up their cookies,” Debbie warns as she races around them checking on the displays. She stops in front of her brother, her face full of worry. “Ian, are you absolutely sure that you can handle tonight all by yourself? I tried to do as much as I could today, but there are still a bunch of cupcakes back there.”

“Debs, it’ll be fine. Go have fun,” Ian assures his sister. “You’ve been waiting months for this concert.” He hands Debbie her things and walks her to the door. Ian all but shoves her outside and locks the bolt behind her, probably to keep her from coming back in. 

“What’s happening?” Mickey asks, wanting Ian to return to kissing him.

“We got a last minute catering order for over a thousand cupcakes this morning. Usually we’d reject it, but the money was too good to pass up. I’m going to be here all fucking night,” Ian explains as he starts closing up the shop instead of coming back to Mickey. Mickey begrudgingly helps him flip all the chairs over but moves out of the way when Ian grabs the broom.

“There goes my surprise then,” Mickey mumbles, hoping he doesn’t sound like he’s pouting. He is, though. 

“Surprise?”

“Mandy declared it ‘Aunt Mandy Day’ and took Yev until tomorrow. I was planning on stealing you for a night alone.”

Ian looks as disappointed as Mickey feels - until his eyes light up. “You can always stay here and help me,” Ian says excitedly, putting the broom away in a hurry. 

Mickey eyes him skeptically. “The only thing I know what to do involving a cupcake is eat one.”

“That’s not true. You helped me fix Yevgeny’s birthday cake,” Ian is standing in front of Mickey again, his face hopeful and excited. 

“You’ll have to re-ice them all,” Mickey argues weakly. He already knows he is going to help, but he needs to put up at least some of a fight.

“It’ll be fun! We can hang out all night,” Ian says cajolingly as he once again pulls Mickey closer to him with his apron strings. Maybe aprons aren’t so dorky after all. “What else would you do tonight?” Ian challenges lightly. “Watch TV alone? I am a much better option.”

“Humble too,” Mickey mumbles before ultimately sighing in defeat. “I just don’t want to cause you to do extra work.”

Ian smiles winningly and kisses Mickey quickly. “I won’t have to. You’ll probably be an expert by the twentieth cupcake anyway.”

******

Mickey isn’t an expert by the twentieth cupcake… or the thirtieth… or even after that.

By the time he reaches his fiftieth cupcake, Ian has had to re-ice all of them.

“I give the fuck up,” Mickey cries as he throws down his spatula. If he never sees a cupcake or bowl of icing again, it will still be too soon.

Ian, re-icing yet another one of Mickey’s monstrosities, sends him a placating look. “You’re not that bad.” He shrugs at Mickey’s disbelieving huff. “I mean you’ll never be invited onto a baking show, but you’re not completely hopeless.” Ian sets his spatula down and makes his way around the table to Mickey, coming to a stop behind him. “Don’t make fun of me for what I’m about to do.”

Ian leans against Mickey’s back and wraps his arms around his shoulders, his hands coming to rest on top of Mickey’s. He adjusts their combined hands on top of Mickey’s spatula and an un-iced cupcake in order to show Mickey how it’s done.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Mickey mutters, although he obviously doesn’t mind the feeling of Ian behind him.

“It works in the movies.” Ian is speaking right into Mickey’s ear, and the sensation causes Mickey to shiver. Ian presses in closer and Mickey can feel his smile against his cheek. He continues to hold Mickey’s hand as he scoops some more icing onto the spatula and raises it to the cupcake.

“You’ve got to twirl the cupcake around the icing, not the icing around the cupcake.”

Mickey watches as he and Ian, mostly Ian, swivel the cupcake and ice it together. It’s almost magical to see how it works, not that Mickey would ever say that to Ian out loud. Before he can blink, the cupcake is iced to perfection and they are moving on to another cupcake. After a few demonstrations, Mickey thinks he gets it.

“Now it is your turn, young grasshopper.” Ian says as he pulls away from Mickey. “And don’t pretend like you can’t do it just because you want me to hold you. That part of the night will happen later.” He throws Mickey a theatrical wink.

“Loser,” Mickey mumbles, somewhat distracted by his newfound icing technique. He watches as a somewhat perfectly iced cupcake takes shape right before his eyes. It’s nowhere near as good as Ian’s, but it’ll do. Is it lame to say that he feels pretty fucking proud in this moment?

Ian cheers from the other side of the table, icing his sixth cupcake to match Mickey’s one. 

One cupcake down, hundreds to go.

******

They finish at four in the morning, around the time all of the cupcakes start to bleed together and Mickey never wants to hold a spatula again. 

They probably could have finished sooner had they not been constantly distracted by each other. Though they’d been dating for a little over a month, Ian still manages to surprise Mickey constantly. His perfected combination of odd, dorky (“What do you see when the Pillsbury Doughboy bends over… DOUGHNUTS.”), charming, and sexy is something that Mickey has become addicted to. The fact that he supplies Mickey’s sweet tooth (for free) is an amazing added bonus.

Sometimes he can be a pain in the ass though - and not in the good way.

“What the fuck do you mean we have to decorate them?” Mickey fumes at Ian when his boyfriend tells him it’s time to decorate the cupcakes.

“Decorate them, embellish them, make them pretty,” Ian explains as he pulls piping bags off of the shelf. “Why would anyone want plain green cupcakes?”

Mickey starts to sputter, only stopping when he notices Ian snickering. “Why are you laughing?! It’s four in the fucking morning! It’s going to take us fucking forever!”

Ian starts laughing harder. It takes a few seconds for Mickey to figure out that the whole thing is a lie. “You’re a fucking asshole.”

Ian starts to put away the decorating supplies, but he’s having a hard time through all of his laughter. “You should have seen your face. It’s going to take us fucking forever!” Ian exclaims in a scarily accurate impression of Mickey.

His laughter only stops when Mickey hits him in the face with a glob of icing. “Whose face looks funny now?” Mickey taunts. 

The taunting is short lived, though. Ian, not one to just take it, retaliates quickly, chucking a handful of uncooked cupcake batter at Mickey, missing his face but hitting him square in the chest. Soon, they are in an all out war. Baking ingredients, mostly icing, are flying around the kitchen. 

The only thing safe from the onslaught are the cupcakes they’d spent hours on.

“Mickey,” Ian hisses from the other side of the kitchen. It was about twenty minutes into the fight and they were both hiding in their respective sides of the kitchen. Mickey can’t see Ian from his spot crouched down beside the stoves, but he doesn’t care to look. “Mickey,” Ian hisses again. “I’m waving the white flag of surrender.”

Mickey sees a white dish towel thrown up into the air, and he can’t help but smile at the enemy. He’s dating an absolute idiot. Ian walks into his line of sight, his hands in the air.

“You scared, Gallagher? Don’t want to get anymore egg on your pretty face?” Mickey asks as he holds a hand out in order for Ian to help him up. He doesn’t expect Ian to drag him into a kiss.

Mickey’s hands automatically move up to frame Ian’s face. He lets Ian kiss him for a while before he forces himself to pull away. “I’m not fucking you in this kitchen, man. That can’t be sanitary.”

Ian drags him back into a kiss, and Mickey lets himself get lost in it once again. Ian’s tongue plunges into Mickey’s mouth as he pulls their bodies flush together by the string of Mickey’s apron. Ian ignores Mickey’s statement and starts to walk backwards, still kissing Mickey as he clumsily guides them through the kitchen. 

“The office,” Ian pants into Mickey’s mouth, “has a pull out bed in it.” He pulls away from Mickey before they can reach the room, racing off to the office to undoubtedly pull the bed out. Mickey takes the reprieve from Ian to catch his breath. 

He starts to take off his apron when an idea hits. As quickly as he can and before Ian returns, Mickey shucks off his all of his clothing except for the apron. When Ian returns, Mickey knows he made the right decision.

“Holy fuck,” Ian grunts, taking in the site of Mickey completely naked under an apron and advancing on him with a feral look in his eyes. “Holy fuck,” he mutters again as he hauls Mickey forward into yet another kiss. His hands move down to cup Mickey’s ass, and they both groan into the kiss.

Before Mickey can be distracted again, he steps back. “Office. Now.” Mickey pushes past Ian and makes his way into the small room, untying the apron as he goes. By the time he reaches the bed, he is completely naked. 

Ian is on him in record time, already naked as well and pushing Mickey down onto the bed and straddling him. He runs his hands down Mickey’s chest before leaning down to nip at Mickey’s skin and run his thumb over Mickey’s nipples. Mickey feels electrified and arches into the feeling of Ian’s mouth on him. Eventually, Mickey is at his wits end, and he drags Ian up into a demanding kiss.

Ian rolls his hips down into Mickey’s, their hard cocks rubbing together and making them groan into the kiss. They continue to kiss and rock into each other until Ian pulls back and moans against Mickey’s throat. “Lube, we need lube.”

In the heat of the moment, Mickey had completely forgotten about lube. Fuck. “We don’t need it; I’ll be fine,” Mickey assures desperately. He would probably regret it in the morning, but right now he didn’t fucking care.

Ian snickers against his throat, his hips still rocking down into Mickey’s slightly. “No, dumbass. I have some here; I need to go get it.”

He pulls away from Mickey and starts to get off of the bed. He starts to head for the door of the bakery, and Mickey is thoroughly confused. “Why the fuck do you have lube in a bakery?”

Ian turns and looks at him like he’s stupid. “Sometimes we use it in the batter.” Mickey’s face must be hilarious because Ian starts giggling. “You are so fucking gullible sometimes,” Ian says as he leaves the room briefly.

“I hate you,” Mickey calls to him.

“No, you don’t.”

Ian returns with his backpack in one hand and lube in the other. He climbs back into bed, back on top of Mickey, and back to the kissing. He covers Mickey’s grin with his own and kisses him slowly. 

Soon, they both lose all restraint and are simply rutting against each other once again. Just before Mickey thinks he might come just from the friction, Ian grabs a hold of Mickey’s hips and flips them over, moving his head down to Mickey’s neck to mark him.

Mickey moves his hands down to rest on Ian’s ass as well as wrap his legs around Ian’s own. “Ian.” He groans out as he moves a hand up to grab onto Ian’s hair and drag his face away from his neck. “Hurry the fuck up.”

The command seemingly brings Ian back to reality. He preps Mickey with quickly but with care before rolling the condom onto himself, lining up, and pushing steadily into Mickey. Ian continues until he bottoms out, pausing to give both of them time to adjust to the feeling. Mickey soon pants out a growl and dug his fingers into Ian’s back, more than ready for Ian to move.

Ian starts off slow and steady, but it soon becomes apparent that it is not working for either of them. Both soon lose all sense of discipline and started moving at a blistering pace. Ian pistons into Mickey as Mickey can’t do much but meet him thrust for thrust and chant Ian’s name from underneath him.

After a few more snaps, Mickey flips them over and takes over, throwing his head back with a loud moan as he rides Ian into the mattress. He picks up speed as Ian thrusts up into him, causing both of their eyes to roll back in their heads.

Mickey knows he doesn’t have much longer and judging by the dazed look on Ian’s face, he doesn’t either. Ian paws at Mickey’s hips and tries to pull him forward for a kiss, but he seems too out of it to figure out how. Mickey smiles at him, taking the hint, and bends down, shoving his tongue into Ian’s waiting mouth. Ian grabs onto Mickey’s dick and starts stroking him in time with this thrusts and to the point of no return. Mickey flies over the edge, letting out a loud moan into Ian’s mouth and coming all over his chest. Ian follows right behind him, jerking up into Mickey a few more times before finally slowing down.

Icing a fuck ton of cupcakes was definitely worth this.

******

“Morning, sunshine!” Ian calls as he enters the office the next morning, which is really only a few hours after they finally passed out.

“What the fuck are you doing up?” Mickey mumbles sleepily. He looks up from his pillow and can’t figure out what is brighter: Ian’s smile or the florescent lights of the office. 

Ian moves around the small space gingerly, sitting on the bed and handing Mickey a cup of coffee. “You don’t really get the chance to sleep in when you run a bakery. Someone’s gotta give the early bird their worms.” 

Mickey takes a sip from his mug, feeling the cobwebs of sleepiness start to disappear. “What time is it?”

“Almost noon.”

“What?!” Mickey checks his phone and sees that it is in fact 11:46. He also sees three missed calls and six text messages from Mandy.

**Mandy 10:58 am  
where are you?**

**Mandy 11:03 am  
are you dead?**

**Mandy 11:05 am  
Yev and I found the spare key and we are going in to your apartment.**

**Mandy 11:06 am  
have you been kidnapped?**

**Mandy 11:08 am  
did that baker dude’s dick knock you out?**

**Mandy 11:20 am  
you’re lucky i’m an amazing aunt and sister. call me once you get out of your dick induced coma.**

Mickey groans as he reads the messages, already knowing Mandy is going to have too much fun teasing him. He looks around the room for his clothes, sending Ian an apologetic look as he shoots off a text to Mandy. “I need to go get Yev. I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“She can bring him here.”

“Huh?” Mickey asks distractedly. He has no idea where the fuck his clothes are. 

“Have Mandy drop him off here,” Ian responds, walking out of the office only to return a moment later with Mickey’s clothes. It takes him a second to remember how they ended up out there, and the memories from hours before come rushing back to Mickey. He feels his face flush, especially when he sees Ian’s smirk.

“You sure?” Mickey asks, looking anywhere but Ian and trying to busy himself with the button his jeans. 

“Of course. I love it when Yevgeny comes to visit,” Ian says reassuringly. “Now get dressed; Debbie needs to come in here.”

Mickey wants to get dressed, but he finds himself with a problem. “My clothes are filthy,” Mickey complains as he inspects his shirt. The icing from the food fight is now caked into the fabric.

“You can wear this.” Ian tosses Mickey a “The Gingerbread House” shirt. Mickey doesn’t have much of a choice, so he drags the shirt over his head. It’s only after he has it on does he realize he is matching Ian. Ian seems to love it.

Ian pulls him off of the bed and into his arms. “Between icing the cupcakes and wearing that t-shirt, you might as well work here.” Ian mumbles as he nips at Mickey’s lips.

Mickey pulls back slightly and cocks an eyebrow. “Does that thought get you going?”

“Everything about you does.”

“No, nope, no. Get out of here! No more defiling our office!” Debbie yells as she once again interrupts them. She herds them towards the door. “There’s a large crowd coming in and it looks like it’s going to be a two man job.”

“How many times do I have to say that I don’t fucking work here?” Mickey grumbles. He lets himself be ushered through the kitchen though, knowing that he is going to help regardless of his complaining. “You should at least pay me.”

“I’ll pay you later,” Ian says suggestively. The promise is more than enough to (almost) stop Mickey’s complaining.

They hear Debbie’s disgusted groan through the office door as they make their way out of the kitchen.

Sure enough, they walk out to find a hoard of people pressing themselves against the display cases and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the sweets. 

“You deal with that, and I’ll check them out. All of the sweets are labeled, so it’ll be easy,” Ian instructs, already moving towards the register, and once again Mickey finds himself not getting much of an option. Despite being willing to help, he feels his palms start to sweat and his exhaustion return, but Ian smiles at him encouragingly. The whole thing makes Mickey feel like a child, so he makes a face at Ian and gets to work. He can do this.

Despite a momentary feeling of panic, it is as easy as Ian instructed; definitely easier than icing a fucking cupcake. Ian and Mickey work well as a team, handling every customer quickly, until there are only two people left- Mandy and Yevgeny.

“You work here now, Mick?” Mandy asks, taking in his t-shirt and apron. She obviously wants to tease him more, but Yevgeny beats her to the punch.

“Daddy, you work here?! That’s awesome!” Yevgeny exclaims, sounding delighted at the possibility that his father could have a job so cool.

“I’m just helping out.” It’s stupid, but Mickey feels guilty when Yevgeny’s smile falters slightly.

“You can still get all the free cookies you want though, Yev,” Ian says as he leans over and hands Yevgeny a couple of snickerdoodle cookies, his favorite. Yevgeny’s smile returns in full force. “In fact, you should ask your dad if you can have a free cupcake.”

Yevgeny instantly turns back to Mickey, his eyes wide with excitement. “Daddy, can I have a cupcake?!”

“Ask him if he can put the icing on it for you,” Ian whispers conspiratorially to Yevgeny.

“Ian,” Mickey warns, already knowing where this is going. 

“Hey Mickey, can you ice a cupcake for me?” Mandy asks innocently. 

Mickey waits until Yevgeny is distracted by yet another free cookie to flip her off. “That just sounds dirty and no free shit for you.” Ian completely ignores him and hands Mandy a cookie too. 

“Daddy, it would be so cool if you worked here,” Yevgeny says almost dreamily, his face and clothing covered in cookie crumbs. If he were dressed in blue, he’d look like the Cookie Monster.

“Wouldn’t it?!” Ian agrees readily. Mickey can already tell that he and Yevgeny are going to be a dastardly duo someday- with Mandy as their sidekick probably. “He even has a nickname.” 

Mickey glares at Ian. “No I don’t.”

“The Muffin Man.”

Mandy all but cackles. “Now who’s being the dirty one? Mickey doesn’t even like muffins, if you know what I mean.” She winks at Ian and they both lose it. Mickey snatches her half eaten cookie out of her hand and throws it in the trash. 

“Thank you for watching Yev. You can leave now.” He points towards the door behind them.

Mandy just smiles at her brother’s discomfort. “You’re no fun.” Ian hands her a new cookie and she smiles at him winningly. “At least someone around here is sweet. Two if you count Yev.” “You should hang out around here more Mickey. Maybe some of the sweet stuff will rub off on you.”

Mickey watches as his sister and his son devour cookie after cookie, and he feels Ian’s warmth next to him. In that moment, he decides that he wouldn’t mind testing out her theory.

Just don’t call him the Muffin Man.

**Author's Note:**

> mickeysupset.tumblr.com


End file.
